USA TODAY International Edition
Snapchat makes it simple to add geofilters
Communications app Snapchat is making the creation of its popular geofilters easier.
The geofilters — personalized photo frames that go over your image via augmented reality — are growing rapidly. Tuesday, Snapchat said its users are viewing them more than 1 billion times daily, double the previous rate of 500 million it disclosed earlier this summer.
Making the geofilters required knowledge and/ or access to imaging software such as Adobe’s Photoshop or Illustrator.
Now, Snapchat will offer customizable templates to design geofilters for birthdays, weddings and other celebrations, with up to six offerings per category.
Geofilters, which some have called the “new hashtag,” are a way to personalize your images and make them stand out. Many Snapchat users have been using them for weddings, birthdays and anniversaries, and the like.
Unlike hashtags, geofilters are not searchable — they are visible only to people within a specific area known as a “geofence” for a limited period of time, say, at a party in a park.
Megan Forbes, a teen in Manhattan Beach, Calif., used a geofilter to ask her boyfriend to a school prom via a geofence in her neighborhood.
“I like how it can add more to an event,” Forbes, 18, told USA TODAY recently. “It adds a little personality, too.”
The geofilters are a for- profit enterprise for Snapchat, which looks to bring in $ 1 billion in rev- enue by 2017, according to Tech Crunch.
The geofilters, which are available on Snapchat’s website, start at $ 5, depending on how large an area they will be displayed in and for how long.
The process begins by choosing a geofilter and designing it, then choosing the geofence area and paying for it. Snapchat approves the design ( even with the new tools) and users await confirmation, usually within 24 hours.
A cottage industry has emerged, with businesses offering to help consumers create geofilters.
Andrew Lee, the founder of Buycustomgeofilters. com, isn’t concerned about Snapchat’s moves.
“The risk is that it won’t be that special or unique,” he says of the Snapchat templates. “This is a generic template that will look like everyone else’s geofilters. There will still be a big market for us.”
Snapchat announced several other new moves Tuesday:
uCaptions: Snapchatters have new tools to add bigger captions to photos.
uA new way to use the Lenses feature: To use them, now you tap your face once. Previously, you had to press and hold.